Category: life skills

To crochet a rug was the last thing on my mind. My last attempt sits at the bottom of a basket of wool. It’s navy, an intricate pattern, a shawl for someone else. (See photo below). The beautiful Merino wool deserves more than I had to offer when I abandoned it, although now I’m ready…… Continue reading Crochet a rug for the baby, she said

Discipline, according to the Collins English Dictionary, is the quality of being able to behave and work in a controlled way which involves obeying particular rules or standards. This definition doesn’t say whose rules or standards, but I believe they’re our own. My friend, Elizabeth Brennan, says discipline is a grace (which implies a gift). I…… Continue reading Discipline – do you love or hate it?

‘Reimagine ageing’. Written by Jennifer Grieve, a respected Australian aged care nurse with forty years experience in the field, it talks about the care that old people need and deserve when they slip into the residential aged care scene. It’s a good article if you consider that some old people need nursing and other care.…… Continue reading How to reimagine ageing with hope

Crazy-making seems to describe my world. Nothing goes the way I expected it would as I aged. Ageing-in-place seemed a delicious idea in theory. But for this eighty-six year old, life-events are confronting. I thought that I’d be peaceful and gentle. And I also thought a rocking-chair and some knitting would feature in my life.…… Continue reading Crazy-making – why the world seems mad

Accidental play – unplanned, spontaneous, adults-having-fun – must surely be the best kind of play. Such an opportunity came my way last week. My friend, Susan Dunn, and I went to the Crown at Burswood, hoping to see the high-tech Monet Exhibition in the specially constructed pavillion. We’d checked the times, and both thought it…… Continue reading Accidental play with photos at Christmas

Change, creativity and play. Three of my favourite states, which are also my current favourite words, hover on my horizon. For this, I’m truly grateful. My eighty-seventh year seems full of promise, and not at all like the gloom I dreaded just before my birthday a few weeks ago. Miserable, bored and fearful about what…… Continue reading More change creativity and play

Procrastinate seemed to be my new second name. For weeks or maybe months I sat in a heap with stuff to do piled around me. The longer I postponed tasks the more painful my feelings. A physical sensation like suffocation grew behind my sternum. It wasn’t just my creativity that was blocked, but the whole…… Continue reading Procrastinate postpone delay – or just do it!